May 19, 2015

After spending the last week visiting Mission Possible schools and churches, we are switching things up this week and taking a look at the other mission organizations that are at work throughout Haiti. Today we toured the area with Project Help Haiti. We started at their facility that is right down the road from us. We went to their school, but it was not in session.Yesterday was Flag Day in Haiti, so everyone had the day off work and school to celebrate. Today is the day after Flag Day, so everyone gets the day off of work and school to recover from all of the celebration. We took a look around the dorms that they house mission teams in, and then went to take a look at the clinic. Edgar, the assistant director and our tour guide for the day, told us that to get a consultation from one of the doctors at the clinic it costs 50 goudes (Haitian currency), which works out to be close to a dollar in American money. They had several consultation rooms in the clinic that each had their own doctor. Right across the street was the actual hospital. We also got to walk through this hospital and go through the different rooms. We saw the room where they sterilize all of the equipment, and even got to go into an operating room. This hospital was so much cleaner and well organized than the government hospital that we saw last week. It was amazing to see the difference even in the atmosphere of the two hospitals. The government hospital had an overbearing feel of doom and discomfort, while this hospital today gave off a feel of hope and compassion. We also got to see the center that has been made for children with Type 2 diabetes. Haitians had previously not thought that children could get diabetes, and that children who showed the symptoms had been cursed by some sort of voodoo. We learned about how the children in the program have progressed since starting treatment, and also about the research being done on the number of children with diabetes in different areas of the country. We visited the nursing school that Project Help Haiti runs and looked through the classrooms and at the new construction being done. We then drove to Project Help Haiti's main campus in Borel. Here they have many different things. This is where their main school is, along with dorms where teams stay, as well as for when they hold large conferences. We also got to see The Water Project and how the filters are built. This is a project to provide safe water in Haiti. The filters put the water through layers of sand and stone to filter out anything bad in the water. We also saw the welding shop where students get hands on experience with fixing and building things. We then went to see the large soccer field and basketball court that have been constructed for the community to use. The group played hangman together while we waited on our ride back to the compound. Once returning "home" most of us took advantage of our last opportunity to swim in the ocean while we are here. Afterwards we had a nice Haitian dinner of beans and rice, plantains, picklies, and chicken. The rest of the evening was spent playing card games and packing all of our things. Tonight is the last night that we will spend at the compound as we move on to other parts of the country tomorrow.